Lover Unknown by Ellie Kincade
This copy kindly provided by NetGalley on behalf of the publisher
not realising this book was so short, I went to bed with the intention of starting it, & finishing it in the morning... before I knew it I was finished!
super short so there's no time for boring fluff & fillers that are not needed. it's straight into the action so to speak, and I was hooked.
I found the final chapter to be a little creepy. I guess time will tell if that was the intention or not. looking forward to the next installment!
Sex & Violence by Carrie Mesrobian
SEX & VIOLENCE
At first you don’t see the connection...
And then you get the absolute living shit beaten out of you for fucking with the wrong girl! Well, that’s not entirely true, said girl had an arsehole ex that couldn’t accept that she was no longer his & he had an equally arseholey friend that would stick by him through ANYTHING! But still, you get the living crap beaten out of you and your whole life is irrevocably changed forever!
This causes a massive realisation for Evan, he comes to terms with the fact he’s been getting through life living as “Dirtbag Evan”. The type who plays the girls to get what he wants & knows exactly which ones to target. So far it’s been the easiest way for him to get through constantly changing schools & not making friends, but now things need to change.
Evan’s (almost) absent father takes him away to the family retreat to heal from the attack. His body heals rather quickly, but it’s his mind that’s suffered the most severe and long lasting damage. He now struggles with PTSD. Is forced to make friends he neither wants nor knows how to have normal relationships with. Has a hard time keeping Dirtbag Evan hidden from these new friends (old habits are hard to break). And struggles even more when it comes to healthy relationships with girls.
This is not a happy romance book, do not go into this expecting some lovey dovey happily ever after, and please don’t be disappointed when any possible love interests/relationships don’t eventuate to anything.
And for those looking for a book full of sex, and violence... this isn’t it. It does contain both, but it more looks at how both acts can have a profound influence on your life and who you are.
This is a story of struggles and healing, self awareness and betterment, a daily struggle of simple tasks we all take for granted, and the value of great friends (even if you never really wanted them in the first place).
I love this book because of the subject matter, it faces things many teen-ish books don’t, and it doesn’t gloss over stuff and make it all rosy. It’s well written, and keeps things broken as they would be in real life. Real life doesn’t have magic cures & miracle recoveries like fiction quite often does, this book reflects that well.
By the time we get to the end, Evan has made some HUGE progress, but he still has a very long road ahead of him until he is fully recovered, that’s if he ever can fully recover from his ordeal.
We never really find out exactly what the two arseholes did to Collette (said girl from above), from the snippets we do get... they really are arseholes!
The Dining Club parts 6-8 by Marina Anderson
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for these copies.
still not completely sold on this story. David finally admitted he loved Grace, even though he couldn't say it in a broader sense than right now. Grace pulled out all the stops and found her true calling - running The Dining Club.
my biggest problem with this series, other than it being too short, is the end... you can't tell us Amber & Lucien are up to no good then just go "THE END". I need to know more now, or I simply would have been happy with the plans David & Grace were making, with no further mention of Amber.
an ok little read, but nothing to race out for...
AMAZON FREEBIE
Go grab your free copy at Amazon right now!!
promotion on for a limited time only, 1 day, 2 days at best...
(the link on the book should get you there)
:D
Lucifer's Daughter by Eve Langlais
Thanks to NetGalley for this copy!
I really enjoyed this! lots of laughs with a pretty good story to go along with it.
I love how Murial's relationship with her father takes the piss out of regular child/parent relationships. Not too many parents encourage their children to sin ;)
The story itself was a little predictable at times, but still lots of fun!
The Dining Club parts 1-5 by Marina Anderson
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for these books
I read these first 5 parts straight after each other and now I'm not sure what happened in what part, so I'm just gonna review them all together...
Grace and David have some wicked chemistry, when they're on the same page and not questioning motives, desires, and the future.
I love how Grace is embracing and exploring this new side of her sexuality, although the setting of The Dining Club is highly controlled and intimidating. But I'm not a fan of how David seems to have become more distant since their first visit to the club.
Even more, I HATE David's double standards! Complaining about how his mother used his father's love for her to control him, stopping him from doing the things he loved & doing what she wanted, a slow manipulation over time. He swears he will never let a woman do that to him. However, David knows exactly how Grace feels about him, and he's using that as a weapon against her, to manipulate & pressure her into completing the challenges at The Dining Club.
Yes, she does end up enjoying the things she experiences, but that doesn't make it ok for David to pull the "if you love me" & "you're doing it for us" bullshit. If it's ok for him, then Grace too has a right to do the same.
Although this isn't completely blowing me away, I still want to finish off the last 3 parts in this series.
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How to customize your BookLikes blog
Many - myself included - either have only rudimentary knowledge of Custom Style Sheets (CSS) or none whatsoever. Whichever category you fall in, there is a way to easily edit your CSS to customize the layout of your blog. Many browsers have addons to live edit your CSS and preview it at the same time. For Google Chrome I use Stylebot.
I have used the first theme for my blog so please be aware that some edits shown here may not work with the other themes but if you get the basic idea behind my post I am sure you can apply a lot of it for the other two themes. :)
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Questionable Author Behaviour - An incomplete list
This list is in no way comprehensive, just a collection of blog-posts talking about Authors Behaving Badly. I did not include amazon- or GR-Reviews because a) there are far too many and b) often comments or whole reviews get deleted and in the end everything looks highly confusing and nobody knows what was actually going on. I simply don't have the time to check all these reviews to see what still makes sense for people who haven't been following them from the beginning.
- John Asht (German)
- James Austen
- Janet Dailey
- Melissa Douhit
- Robin Wyatt Dunn
- Cassie Edwards
- Eftos Epos (German)
- Victoria Foyt
- Emily Giffin
- Alison Gilmore
- Kendall Grey
- Jac D. Hawkins 1 | 2 | 3
- Lauren Howard/Lauren Pippa: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
- Jacqueline Howett
- Mike Kearby
- Victoria Laurie
- Stephen Leather
- Elle Lothlorien
- Deborah Anne MacGillivray
- Jessica Park
Other Blogs/Blogposts of Interest
These are just some cases I know about because I followed discussion about this kind of author-behaviour. I'm sure there's more. If you know of any other links you think belong on this list (or think one of those links is inaccurate) drop a comment.
Booklikes Tutorials reblogged from MandyM
MandyM's most comprehensive list of: "Links to various Booklikes tutorials around the site. Thanks to all the hardworking BL members and team who contributed".
Shortened because everybody will be reblogging this one...
Fifty Shames of Earl Grey by Fanny Merkin
Ladies – forget Christian Grey, prepare to meet Earl Grey!!
Earl is the 27yo multi-billionaire CEO of The Earl Grey Corporation and “HOLY MOTHER EFFING SPARKLY VAMPIRES IS HE HOT”. His life is a daily struggle with his Fifty Shames, but who can resist a man in a shiny silver g-string and hot pink Crocs. Complete the package that is Earl Grey with his love (or shames) of BDSM (Bards, Dragons, Sorcery, and Magick), mournful tambourine playing, and a serious man-crush on Tom Cruise.
Anna Steal is a 21yo virgin, studying for her final exams. She is incredibly stupid, and will believe anything, especially if it’s on Wikipedia. For those who can’t stand Ana’s lip biting and eye rolling, you’ll be happy to know that Anna doesn’t do this – she’s a nose picker (and lucky for her Earl finds this a big turn-on).
Their whole world changes when Anna trips & cartwheels into Grey’s office, landing on his desk, to his appreciative applause. A superfast, whirlwind romance follows, beginning with a shopping trip to Walmart (Anna’ place of work), where, after a few taps on his Blackberry, purchases the company to ensure Anna can finish her shift and join him for coffee - flying by helicopter to Starbucks across the road (Earl assures Anna that their coffee doesn’t actually taste like burnt arse as she suspects, but we never do find out exactly how he knows what burnt arse tastes like...).
Yes, the rest of the story is just as ridiculous and crazy with a few near deaths, a charity function, Earl’s “Dorm Room of Doom” (as Anna calls it), a break-up, a pregnancy, and a wedding.
This book is hilarious! There wasn’t much I could read without laughing and most of that also had the tears going it was that good. Loved it!!
The Domino Queen by Cyrian Amberlake
was expecting something bigger from this one. some parts early on were good & seemed to promise a big finish, but it just didn't happen. The "Domino Queen" didn't appear much at all, and for a book of that title I was expecting big things from her. it seemed to focus a lot more on other characters rather than Josephine. slightly disappointed with this one after the big finish in the second book, but still a good read.